BabuK
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- Jul 30, 2008
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The number of elephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania has fallen by nearly 42 per cent in just three years, a census showed yesterday, as poachers increasingly killed the animals for their tusks.
The census, at the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park, revealed that elephant numbers had plunged to 43,552 in 2009 from 74,900 in 2006.
It was carried out by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, as part of a government plan to conserve wildlife.
The rapid fall prompted President Jakaya Kikwete to order an investigation, a State House statement said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Conservationists say Tanzania has a total elephant population of between 110,000 and 140,000, making it one of the jumbos largest sanctuaries in Africa.
But in recent years, Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya have suffered a steep rise in poaching as criminals killed elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns for sale in Asia.
TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife trading, said in a statement last week that last year was a record year for ivory seizure. It pointed to a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use chiefly in jewelry and ornaments.
Elephants, the worlds largest land mammals, are also under pressure in many other parts of the continent from loss of habitat to humans, pollution and climate change. Conservationists say their number has fallen to 470,000-685,000 from millions just decades ago.
President Kikwete also ordered TWRI to investigate the disappearance of the rare Roosevelts sable antelope from the countrys national parks, and to look for ways of re-introducing the animal in at least in one of the parks, the statement said.
The last Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2007 agreed on a nine-year moratorium on any further trade in ivory, after some 105 tonnes of elephant ivory had been sold from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to China and Japan.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
The census, at the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park, revealed that elephant numbers had plunged to 43,552 in 2009 from 74,900 in 2006.
It was carried out by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, as part of a government plan to conserve wildlife.
The rapid fall prompted President Jakaya Kikwete to order an investigation, a State House statement said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Conservationists say Tanzania has a total elephant population of between 110,000 and 140,000, making it one of the jumbos largest sanctuaries in Africa.
But in recent years, Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya have suffered a steep rise in poaching as criminals killed elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns for sale in Asia.
TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife trading, said in a statement last week that last year was a record year for ivory seizure. It pointed to a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use chiefly in jewelry and ornaments.
Elephants, the worlds largest land mammals, are also under pressure in many other parts of the continent from loss of habitat to humans, pollution and climate change. Conservationists say their number has fallen to 470,000-685,000 from millions just decades ago.
President Kikwete also ordered TWRI to investigate the disappearance of the rare Roosevelts sable antelope from the countrys national parks, and to look for ways of re-introducing the animal in at least in one of the parks, the statement said.
The last Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2007 agreed on a nine-year moratorium on any further trade in ivory, after some 105 tonnes of elephant ivory had been sold from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to China and Japan.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN